The IMDA announced a series of initiatives to foster the country’s digital economy.
Background: The Infocomm Media Development Authority of SIngapore (IMDA) has been active on the front of 5G in recent months. In May, it launched a consultation on a policy and regulatory framework for 5G rollout, which ran until 19 June 2019. This week, the regulator launched initiatives to facilitate the growth of the country’s digital economy, such as building an inclusive 5G ecosystem.
The funding scheme: Developing innovative 5G use cases is one of the four strategic areas of the country’s vision for 5G. To this end, Singapore has set aside SGD40m (USD29.5m) to support 5G research and innovation. This will support: 5G technology trials to demonstrate the transformative impact of 5G; the creation of a series of open testbeds to enable research and innovation; and research and development in 5G. The IMDA will explore early trials in clusters such as: Maritime Operations, Urban Mobility, Smart Estates, Industry 4.0 (integrating 5G with IoT, AI, and robotics), Consumers Applications, and Government Applications. The IMDA will create a series of open testbeds for both government and industry use, to foster collaboration and capability development.
More to come: The IMDA will cooperate with the Cyber Security Agency (CSA) to support research and development in cybersecurity. It will also announce more funding at a later date, to support other areas of 5G research such as in communications networks.
